Another morning, another great video

Archive

Monthly Archives: December 2011

I just posted this a few months ago, but I still love it! Marcel the Shell is my favorite and most quoted video of the year by far (‘treats and snoozing, snoozing and treats’) and Marcel makes me smile every time I see him (‘because it’s worth it’). (original post)

Though every week I write about the new video I love most, some weeks our timing is off and a video blows up before any of us had the chance to showcase it’s ‘awesome.’ This is one of those videos. Made by the same guy who voiced my favorite cat video, this doggie dub is hilarious and plays to every pet-owner curiosity about what their pups are thinking.

This is just stunning! As some one who’s been a fan of Bon Iver’s music for awhile now, I’m partial to the floating, haunting melodies. But, what I love most about this video is how well the dreamlike visuals complement the song, largely due to the sharp, pale features of Riana from Top Model. (original post)

This Japanese music video made it to my favorites for two reasons: 1) it’s crazy impressive that all five of those guys could pull of such precise movements in live slow motion 2) the video was released to promote a healthily post-earthquake Japan and embody the message that it’s possible to rise form the chaos and create order. (original post)

All week your faithful editors at Here’s Some Awesome will be selecting their favorites from the year! Some may be previously posted, some may be entirely new — but all represent the kind of awesome we’ve been happy to bring you guys all year long. Please enjoy, and happy holidays!

I’m just gonna come out and say it – this was my favorite video I posted this year. Something about it hit me really hard and it still pops to mind upon occasion.

But beyond all that shock, beyond all that hindsight of twenty-first century engineering, there is something tragically beautiful about the video in the same way that a eulogy is beautiful. It’s a video showing people’s lives through their deaths and near-deaths; of an understanding of who they are at their very core expressed directly through their passion – even if that passion eventually killed them. We should all be so lucky to die doing what drove us to live.

The Arab Spring was one of the most worldchanging events of the past year. People all across the world watched in anticipation, awe, and anger, as first a few, then a few hundre, then a few thousand stood up in unison to say “No more!” The repercussions will be felt for decades.

The primary video element is footage from the recent Egyptian revolution – personal and occasionally voyeuristic in its simplicity and access. For the audio, we hear Eddie Hazel’s single-take blues guitar solo from Funkadelic’s 1971 song Maggot Brain. And running through both the audio and video is Charlie Chaplin’s stirring climactic speech from his 1940 film The Great Dictator.

Oh TED talks, I’ve posted more than a few in the past year. Can you blame me though when you get gems like someone explaining the (mostly) complete history of the entire universe in 17 minutes?

I think it’s no surprise by now that I fly my nerd flag high. Amongst the other nerdy things that I gravitate towards, I’ve always had a love for the types of science that involve cosmological physics on a universal scale. Because of this, I have a rather…robust science book collection (and my apartment smells of rich mahogany…) so when I say that this is one of the best explanations I’ve ever come across as to how the universe got to its present point, it means I’m comparing it to no less than Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan.

This is the second of two TED talks I’ll post today, and another that’s stuck in my head since I found it. I’ve long believed that there isn’t a single human issue that can’t be solved with the proper application of the Internet. Marcin Jakubowski and Open Source Ecology are taking this maxim to an end I could only imagine.

Our goal is a repository of published designs so clear – so complete – that a single burned DVD is effectively a civilization starter kit.

I’m ending with what’s maybe my favorite new webseries of 2011 – My Drunk Kitchen. Yes, it may be “just” Hannah, a laptop camera, and a fair bit of editing, but it goes to show that sometimes it’s less important how you make your show, and more important how you connect with your audience. Hannah is smart, engaging, charming, and altogether entertaining – expect to see more and bigger things from her over the coming years.

For some people, a kitchen is a place where wonders never cease. For others, it’s akin to Mordor: a place into which one simply cannot walk and expect to survive. For Hannah Hart, the kitchen is where one goes to drink heavily while playing with fire.

It’s been a fun year, Internet. Here’s to 2012 – may it be even more awesome than 2011.

All week your faithful editors at Here’s Some Awesome will be selecting their favorites from the year! Some may be previously posted, some may be entirely new — but all represent the kind of awesome we’ve been happy to bring you guys all year long. Please enjoy, and happy holidays!

Being that I missed a couple of weeks, I’m going to cheat and show you six+1 of my favorite awesome videos of 2011.

Protect IP Act Breaks The Internet

So, you know the #SOPA bill that’s still being considered? This video by Kirby Ferguson, creator of the Everything Is A Remix series, is still my favorite explanation of the SOPA/E-PARASITE/Protect IP legislation. It criminalizes a lot of web culture that we hold dear — music playing in the background of videos, footage of people dancing, clips of kids playing video games, and videos of people playing cover songs. It’s American Protectionism at its worst. Please forward, retweet, force your friends to drink this down.

What I found interesting about the above video (shot and made in Malaysia) is that the guy proposes to his girlfriend in nothing but internet memes. Insert thoughtful bit about the pervasiveness of Internet Culture and the accessibility of cheap, gorgeous cameras here.

Tokyo Slo-Mode

Speaking of cheap, gorgeous cameras: if I’ve been absent from my HSA duties as of late, it’s because I’ve been spending all of my time on VHX and Vimeo lately, fascinated with what people are creating with sub-$1000 DSLRs like the Canon Rebel/KISS series and the Panasonic GH2. The video above isn’t necessarily groundbreaking aesthetically but it was made relatively inexpensively (it boasts of how it was made with a $700 Canon T3i “and starter lenses”) and it looks and feels great. Add in some neat, relatively inexpensive plugins and you have everything you need to tell engaging stories. (Bring Your Own Talent, of course.)

War Photojournalism Behind the Scenes

This short piece by photojournalist Ruben Salvadori shows how some of those fascinating conflict zone photographs that seem perfectly timed aren’t really so much about capturing a moment as much as they’re about creating them. His aim doesn’t seem to be to demean them. Being cynical about conflict photography is easy (see: ‘Vancouver Riot Kiss‘) but actually understanding the context around them is a bit more complex.

This is still my favorite video of 2011. Animated gifs + an 8-bit hip hop cover. What else do you need?

And if you’ll excuse the indulgence, my last video is more of a personal post. I asked myself: what video would best sum up what the last year has meant to me? And back came this singular piece of artistry, a portrayal of the excitement of possibility as well as the pressure of integrating the self wtih society. Never have I found a more perfect expression of the duality of the psyche in a sea of modernity and interaction…

All week your friendly editors at Here’s Some Awesome will be selecting their favorites from the year! Some may be previously posted, some may be entirely new — but all represent the kind of awesome we’ve been happy to bring you guys all year long. Please enjoy, and happy holidays!

Dave Seger’s M83 Vocal Audition

Guest editor Rick Rey technically already posted about M83’s “Midnight City,” but we never got around to featuring David Seger’s inspired take on it. Which is a shame, because it’s pretty brilliant. Unexpected side effect of this video — I kinda fell head over heels for the actual song.

29 Ways to Stay Creative

A great use of motion graphics to offer inspiring advice for those who might need it. (Original post.)

40 Seconds of Tickle

Base-jumping = crazy talk, if you ask me. But anytime a guy wants to strap some HD cameras to his helmet and glide down the side of a mountain, I will happily watch. (Original post.)

Have you ever wanted to hug a glacier? Or hear your stomach digest a meal? Sure, sometimes, but I am not sure I would have thought to actually make it happen. Former New Yorker, current Canadian Kate Hartman makes things that lets you do those things.

Have you ever wondered what a Christmas-themed rave looks like? Well, I hadn’t either but I’m guessing it would be a lot like this. Donning an impressive 35,000 LED lights on 64 different channels, this festive home display is all out impressive.

So if you find yourself in Meridian, Idaho this holiday season dust off that LED reindeer hat you got at Walmart and join the party. Or if you’re like me and spending the holidays with my classic music loving relatives, I suggest grabbing the nearest set of headphones and enjoy yourself a little slice of Dubstep this Christmas.

This is a piece created to question whether it was possible to film animation in realtime. Part of my CSM 3rd year disseration project I was looking at proto animation (really early basic animation) in contemporary design. I’ve taken a lot of influence from other contemporary designers who are using these techniques to explore the way we look at animation and how its made.